UK firms fail to fund millennium crisis fix

UK companies lag behind their European competitors in funding the year 2000 issue because more than two thirds of the nation's directors are blind to the problem.

Less than 18% of UK respondents to a survey of IT and finance directors across Europe, commissioned by Softlab, have clear year 2000 funding assigned. This puts them behind Benelux, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Scandinavia.

These findings confirm the results of a survey by PA Consulting which questioned the business and IT directors of 535 companies in the public sector, small and medium-sized enterprises and multinational businesses. Only 28% believed senior management were aware of the millennium problem.

Gerry Pollard, year 2000 worldwide programme director at Softlab, was dismayed by how little progress had been made to fixing the bug across Europe. 'Not only is the planning at a very early stage, but it is incomplete.

The problem needs board recognition,' he said.

Gary Miles, a member of PA's management group, was alarmed that only 9% of companies surveyed had completed an audit into the problem.

'There are far too many inadequate project managers running year 2000 programmes. The audits need a top down approach to stop them getting bogged down in detail,' he said.